Piser moving to renovated house on Colfax

July 17, 2008|By GENE STOWE Tribune Correspondent

After more than seven years in a space where his furniture-building shop overwhelmed his showroom, Larry Piser is moving his Piser Designs to a renovated 100-year-old house that will show off his style from bar to bathroom.

The entire downstairs of the house on Colfax Avenue near downtown South Bend will be a showroom for PiserÂ?s furniture and othersÂ? carefully selected fixtures, artwork and accessories. Piser will live upstairs, and the workshop will be in a separate building behind.

Â?That will be chaos, and this will be order,Â? he says. Â?ThatÂ?s where all the magic will happen now. WeÂ?ll be displaying all my furniture and a few select artists as well. Everything on the first floor will be for sale.

Â?ItÂ?s evolved quite a bit from whittling in a trailer,Â? says Piser, who made his own furniture from firewood with a knife and hammer when he was living in Taos, N.M. years ago. Â?The wood was what always attracted me Â? the unique pieces that attracted my attention out of the woodpile.Â?

Now Piser makes his furniture, when possible, from sustainably-harvested wood that he gets mostly from an Amish retailer.

He has two main lines Â? Torii, inspired by the uprights and crossbeams of the gates to Shinto shrines, and flared-leg bellbottom Â? but each can be customized for tables, cabinets, wine racks, beds, buffets and other creations.

Piser also works with architects to enhance buildings, especially sacred spaces such as chapels, churches and synagogues, with exactly the right furniture.

Â?If they have a unique space that requires something made with a little more care and attention, they come to me,Â? he says. Â?TheyÂ?ll bring me ideas. Sometimes weÂ?ll work together on the design. ItÂ?s always good to do collaborative work.Â?

Piser has been working on the Colfax house for about a year, taking out walls, widening doorways and carefully choosing the colors for the space that can also be used as a salon-style gathering spot for elegant evenings of exchanging ideas.

The clean white floors and trim sparkle with gray walls in the front room and exactly the right blue to complement the dining table and Torii bench on one side of the next room and the queen-sized bed heÂ?ll make for the other side.

Â?I wanted the warmth to come from the furniture,Â? Piser says, explaining the choice of cool paint colors.

Furniture, coasters, stemware, linens Â? everything will be for sale, says Marybeth Saunders, who does marketing and buying for Piser. Among the items are pottery pieces by Ellie Kraska, who also assists Piser and does much of the finish work on furniture.

The transition Â? finishing the house and moving the stacks of wood and wall of tools to the shop Â? will take a few more months, with a grand opening planned about October.

ItÂ?s one block and a giant step from the original store, where a tiny showroom, usually under a layer of dust, greeted visitors. Piser at first thought that he would manufacture and other stores would retail the product, but customers came to him.

Â?The chaos of the space was overwhelming,Â? he says. Â?Now people are able to see the things in a house setting. ItÂ?ll always be changing as a piece sells. The space will evolve, and the pieces will evolve.Â?

The new location for Piser Designs will be 516 East Colfax Avenue in South Bend.

For more information, call (888) 527-7477, or see the Web site at www.piserdesigns.com.